Gilgo Beach Defendant Rex Heuermann Is Charged in a Seventh Killing

New York|Gilgo Beach Defendant Rex Heuermann Is Charged in a Seventh Killing

Rex Heuermann, the architectural consultant accused in the Gilgo Beach serial killings, was charged with a seventh murder on Tuesday morning.

Prosecutors say that he killed Valerie Mack, who had been working as an escort, more than two decades ago. Her partial remains were found in 2011.

Mr. Heuermann had already been accused of murdering five women found along the Long Island beach and another woman whose remains were found in Southampton, N.Y. He has pleaded not guilty to those crimes.

Investigators in Suffolk County have been working intently to connect him to the five other people whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach, including Ms. Mack, Karen Vergata and three unidentified victims.

Prosecutors said on Tuesday that a hair found on Ms. Mack matched the genetic profile of Mr. Heuermann’s daughter, Victoria, who would have been a little girl at the time.

Tricia Hazen, a half sister of Ms. Mack, said in an interview before the indictment that she was heartened to hear about the charges.

“He’ll get his punishment, either here or in the next world,” she said. “He has to answer to God and hopefully he’ll answer here on earth, too.”

Appearing in court with his lawyer, Michael J. Brown, Mr. Heuermann, 61, pleaded not guilty to the latest murder charge. He remains in jail awaiting a trial that the judge in the case is pushing to schedule next year.

In addition to DNA matches, phone records and internet activity that prosecutors say tie Mr. Heuermann to the killings, they also say he created a planning document on a computer to “methodically blueprint” the selection, torture, killing and disposal of victims.

The file, which suggests he engaged in sadistic sexual acts with his victims before and after their deaths, bolsters prosecutors’ argument that he led a double life. They have said he waited for his wife and their children to leave on vacations and then possibly attacked his victims in the basement of the family’s home in Massapequa Park.

Prosecutors said on Tuesday that a mutilation wound on Ms. Mack’s breast and indications of rope ligatures seemed to comport with bondage and sadistic pornography he was downloading at the time of her murder. He used similar techniques in the dismembering and disposal of Ms. Mack that he used with that of Jessica Taylor, who he is also charged with murdering, they said.

Prosecutors also said that they found numerous articles on the Gilgo murders that they said he collected as souvenirs or mementos.

This is a developing story and will be updated.